1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and a system for applying site activity indexes. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and a system for acquiring site activity indexes from web site activities or usage of charged/non-charged services on the Internet and applying the site activity indexes to charged games.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the Internet has recently spread, electronic commerce and information exchange for people all over the world has increased on the Internet. In particular, development of the Internet has enabled the provision of various categories of information to many users irrespective of their residential areas. Further, portal sites for providing information search services or community services have been developed and used.
Users have received various pieces of information through the portal sites according to the development of the portal sites, and they have easily exchanged information with other users through the community services. When the portal sites generate communities in cyber space and obtain more registered users and hit numbers of homepages, they can increase advertisement income and marketing income by application of user information. Hence, the portal sites have developed methods so that as many users as possible may perform activities on their sites. Thus, the portal sites have used the marketing strategy of providing cyber money to the user when the user executes electronic transactions on corresponding sites, for the purpose of promoting usage of the sites.
However, since the above-noted cyber money is electronic money that can be converted into real money, it may generate suspicion, such as a tie-in sale of money, when cyber money is assigned to the user's purchase. Also, illegal transactions for reserving a further amount of cyber money may be executed because the cyber money can be exchanged with real money.
Accordingly, mileages that are not exchangeable with real money are assigned to users according to their activities generated on the portal sites. In this instance, the user activities available for mileages include an activity for causing settlement (e.g., a transaction such as making a purchase), a specific activity for watching advertisements, an activity for joining events, an activity for registering with cooperating sites, and an activity for using services of the cooperating sites, and may further include an activity for transmitting and receiving mail through the site and an activity for logging into the site by the users.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of a conventional mileage providing system through the Internet 400, the system including a plurality of user terminals 100, a portal site 200, and a plurality of site servers 300.
Referring to FIG. 1, the Internet mileage providing system is realized in the portal site 200 and is connected to the user terminals 100 and the site servers 300 through a network (substantially the Internet 400) including a telephone network, the Internet, and a wireless communication network.
The user terminals 100 are communication devices for accessing the mileage providing system realized in the portal site 200 through the Internet 400, and include a plurality of user terminals 110, 120, and 130.
The site servers 300 include servers 310, 320, and 330 of sites for providing various services through the Internet 400, and they represent servers of sites that are cooperating with the mileage providing system realized in the portal site 200 and provide services.
The system connected to the user terminals 100 through the Internet 400 and providing/exchanging mileages to/with the user includes an interface server 210, an authentication server 220, a processing server 230, and a database server 240.
The database server 240 includes a user database 241, a mileage database 242, and a cyber money database 243.
The user database 241 stores information on users who receive services through the mileage providing system and the mileage database 242 stores information on the mileages assigned to the users. Also, the cyber money database 243 stores information on the cyber money possessed by respective users.
The processing server 230 for providing and exchanging mileages based on the information stored in the database server 240 includes a service provider 231 for providing a plurality of services including transactions to the user, a mileage provider 232 for providing mileages according to the user's states and degrees of participating in the services provided through the service provider 231, and a cyber money provider 233 for providing cyber money to the user.
In this instance, the service provider 231 includes a transaction service unit 231-1 for selling and buying goods, an event provider 231-2 for providing a plurality of events including advertisements to the user, and a cyber money service unit 231-3 for providing exclusive services (e.g., games) based on cyber money.
The authentication server 220 performs users' membership registration to the system and performs membership authentication based on the information stored in the user database 241. Also, the interface server 210 controls access of the user terminals 100 through the Internet 400, converts various pieces of information provided by the respective servers into data that satisfy a communication standard, and provides the data to the user terminals 100. Additionally, the interface server 210 can receive information from the user terminals 100 through the Internet 400 and provide the information to the respective servers.
FIG. 2 shows an operational flowchart of a conventional method for acquiring mileages on the Internet.
Referring to FIG. 2, in a conventional method for acquiring mileages on the Internet, a user inputs an ID and a password to log in to the system in step S201 and then uses a service provided by the system. Next, the service provider 231 of the processing server 230 shown in FIG. 1 provides a plurality of services to the user according to the user's request after checking the user's right to use the service in steps S202 and S203.
For example, when the user requests a transaction service for buying predetermined goods (e.g., contents such as avatars, lottery, and products) sold by the system, the transaction service unit 231-1 performs a transaction with the user in step S204, and transmits corresponding results to the mileage provider 232. That is, the transaction service unit 231-1 provides settled money, a user ID, and a settlement date on the sold goods according to the transaction with the user to the mileage provider 232 in step S205.
The mileage provider 232 provides a predetermined percentage of mileages corresponding to the settled money to the user in step S206, records an accumulation format for indicating that the mileages are given according to the usage of the transaction service corresponding to the user ID of the mileage database 242, and records information including the provided mileages and the total amount of mileages given to the user.
In addition to the above-noted service usage, when the user clicks an advertisement provided to the user terminal 100 by the event provider 231-2 and checks it, or the user participates in various events in step S207, the event provider 231-2 provides the corresponding user's ID and information on the categories of the events in which the user participated to the mileage provider 232. The mileage provider 232 provides predetermined mileages that are established depending on the categories of events to the user in step S208, and corresponding information is stored in the mileage database 242.
When the user accesses a site server 200 cooperating with the mileage providing system and registers himself as a member in step S209, the corresponding site server 300 provides registered user information (e.g., a residence number) to the mileage provider 232. In this instance, the mileage provider 232 searches the user database 241, and when the mileage provider 232 finds the information, that is, when the user is a member of the system, the mileage provider 232 provides predetermined mileages caused by the membership registration of the cooperating site to the user in step S210, and corresponding information is stored in the mileage database 242. The mileages can also be provided to the user when the user uses the service provided by the site server 300.
Therefore, the user receives mileages that are inconvertible into money according to the user's various activities based on the mileage providing system, and in particular, the system can prevent the suspicion of tie-in sales since the mileages are inconvertible into money in the usage of transactions.
There are several prior art patents relating to the usage of mileages in electronic games and commerce. For example, in Korean Application no. 2000-14659 filed on Mar. 22, 2000 entitled “Method for Using Mileages in Games,” a method of using mileages in an electronic game is disclosed.
In detail, the prior art relates to a method for reusing mileages in games in order to promote the Internet electronic commerce field using a mileage system and the Internet advertisement marketing field, in which one netizen plays a game with another netizen and provides or receives mileages to/from him depending on the cases in which the netizen wins or loses the game, and hence netizens aggressively use the mileage based Internet service providers since they can effectively use the mileages even if the amount of mileages may be very small.
In Korean Application no. 2001-4653 filed on Jan. 31, 2001 entitled “Method for Using Mileages Generated in Electronic Commerce,” it is disclosed that a user acquires mileages through an electronic transaction, bets the mileages on a game of the same site, and plays the game, and when the user gathers a predetermined amount of mileages in the game, he goes shopping again with the mileages.
In detail, a web site having an electronic transaction corner and a game corner is generated on an information communication network, and when a user accesses the web site, the user is registered as a member, and when the member executes an electronic transaction, mileages corresponding to a predetermined percentage of the price are reserved to the user, and the user selectively takes the mileages to join and play the game of the same site and selectively performs electronic transactions at the same site by using the mileages that are further reserved through the game corner.
Further, in Korean Application no. 2003-72813 filed on Oct. 18, 2003 entitled “Method for Consuming Mileages Using Games,” it is disclosed that online mileages or equivalent valuable means are converted into game money, a game is played by using the game money, a gamer is controlled to acquire items when a specific event occurs during the execution of the game, and the game money is settled when the game is over.
In detail, mileages having the same values as cash are converted into game money, the gamer is controlled to play the game using the game money, he is controlled to acquire items when a specific event occurs during the game, and he is controlled to make a purchase by using the items so that winning and losing game money may not be gambling and the mileages of companies that give excessive mileages (e.g., airlines, communication service providers, security corporations, and the OK cash bag service providing company) can be consumed with a small cost.
However, in the conventional mileage providing method, the term of mileages strongly implies possessions that are generated by reserving a predetermined part of services, such as airline mileages. Actually, airline mileages are generated by reserving a predetermined amount of their charged prices so that they are appropriated as debts, and 50% of the total reserves are to be stored in cash.
Further, as to other prior art, disclosed are Korean Application no. 2000-14659 and no. 2001-4653 in which netizens acquire mileages from Internet transactions, they play games using the mileages, and they perform electronic transactions by using the mileages that are further reserved from the game corner. Accordingly, the mileages function as cyber money, and since the cyber money is convertible into cash, illegal transactions for reserving more cyber money may be executed. Also, Korean Application no. 2003-72813 problematically aims at the above-noted mileages that may be considered to be possessions since the mileages that have the equivalent values of cash and are provided by airlines, communication service providers, security corporations, and the OK cash bag service providing company are converted into game money.